


honor in more ways than one

by radialarch



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Cultural Differences, F/F, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:46:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24238270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radialarch/pseuds/radialarch
Summary: Catherine suddenly wasn't looking at Shamir's eyes. "It's better, all right," she said, nonsensical. "Look, I don't want to bother you.""That's never stopped you before," Shamir said, but she was curious now. Catherine was flushed pink across the bridge of her nose, her jaw clenched tight, and the answer came to Shamir in an instant."If this is about sex, we can have sex," she said.
Relationships: Catherine/Shamir Nevrand
Comments: 7
Kudos: 99





	honor in more ways than one

**Author's Note:**

> lightly cleaned up fill for a [kinkmeme prompt](https://fe3h-kinkmeme-light.dreamwidth.org/452.html?thread=86724#cmt86724). possibly i am doing kinkmemes wrong, oh well.

Shamir had hated Catherine when they first met. The Church of Seiros bred knights who could never say what they meant and demanded that everyone else do the same. Sure, Catherine was sun-bronzed and fit and might have been able to outdrink Shamir given the chance, but the headache wouldn't have been worth the trouble.

Over the past few years, Shamir had reluctantly revised her assessment of Catherine from _annoying_ to _dependable_ , but tonight was one of those times she came perilously close to changing it back.

"This is not a problem," she said for the third time. "It's pouring out there, it's ridiculous to try looking for other accommodations."

"Right, of course," said Catherine, who nonetheless sounded deeply uncomfortable. "I just hadn't realized when we stopped here that the rooms would all be taken."

"There's a war on," Shamir pointed out. "This is the fastest way to get the hell out of the area before the armies show up."

The innkeeper, a thin, harried man, had nearly had an aneurysm when he realized that Thunder Catherine of the Knights of Seiros wanted to stay on the premises. Shamir, who could have slept in the stables and thought that a luxury, had hastily convinced him not to turn anyone else out of their rooms.

Which brought them here, to a room that was rather smaller with all of Catherine's bulk crammed into it. It was sparsely furnished, but it was a warm, dry place to spend the night, and Shamir had been ready to peel off her mail and vambrace and stumble into the bed for some much-needed sleep.

She wondered if it was Catherine's noble background that was preventing her from doing the same. By now she knew better than to think Catherine soft, but old habits didn't leave easy.

"—just sleep on the floor," said Catherine over her thoughts. Okay. So it wasn't the noble background.

"You don't need to," Shamir pointed out. The bed wasn't large, but they could both fit, and it was better than having Catherine stiff and grumbling on her horse the next morning. "Why would you?"

Catherine suddenly wasn't looking at Shamir's eyes. "It's better, all right," she said, nonsensical. "Look, I don't want to bother you."

"That's never stopped you before," Shamir said, but she was curious now. Catherine was flushed pink across the bridge of her nose, her jaw clenched tight, and the answer came to Shamir in an instant.

"If this is about sex, we can have sex," she said.

Shamir had had a lover, back before Dagda had flung its sons and daughters to the winds. But it had been a long time since she lost him, and she'd been too wary, too busy at Garreg Mach to bother. Catherine, though—they knew each other well enough, and she was pretty when she wasn't talking nonsense.

Catherine went, somehow, even more pink. "That is not what—I'm not asking—oh, you are _impossible_."

"No, I'm asking," Shamir said, quite reasonably. "But you're easy on the eyes, and if it'll get you into the damn bed—" A thought struck her. The nobles of Faerghus were rather silly about sex, what with their fixation on heirs and Crests and all that. Not that Catherine was a normal noble, but— "You _have_ had sex before?"

"I'm not talking about this," Catherine growled. The red had spread all the way to the tips of her ears. The sight was, unaccountably, charming.

Shamir took off her boots, one by one. Dropping onto the coverlet, she said, "Well, if you're scared, never mind."

In the firelight, Catherine's eyes flashed. It was an expression Shamir saw often on the battlefield.

"I'll show you scared," she said, dangerous in the way she got when she made up her mind, and then she was crowding between Shamir's knees to lean down and kiss her.

Catherine's hands were firm against the sides of Shamir's jaw, her mouth hot and wet. Shamir gave Catherine points for enthusiasm even as she surged up to meet her. Someone had once told her that sex wasn't a fight—still, didn't mean Shamir wanted to lose.

Catherine made a noise when Shamir bit. A good one, though, opening her mouth for more, and Shamir was happy to give it. She wound the fingers of one hand into Catherine's flaxen locks and _tugged_ , and the response to that went straight to her belly.

"Wait," said Catherine. She was breathless, her eyes glazed, and all Shamir could see for a moment was her red, dark mouth. "Wait, we should talk."

Gods _damn_ the Knights of Seiros who would forever insist on talking. "If you're going to say that your heart still belongs to Rhea, or whatever, yeah, I know." That was the first thing Shamir had learned about Catherine. "There's no need to make this complicated."

"What? I mean, yes, in a sense, but I'm not inviting Lady Rhea to my _bed_." Catherine sounded so scandalized Shamir nearly laughed. "Serving her's got nothing to do with—no, that's not what I meant. You're my friend."

Well, Shamir could see the end of this discussion coming a mile away. A pity, because the kissing had been quite nice, but if Catherine didn't think so—that was disappointing, but she'd withstood disappointment before.

She tried to ignore the nagging thought that what she was feeling was _hurt_.

"Sure," she said, as neutrally as possible. "I trust you."

"So do I," Catherine said easily. "But I mean, look, if we're going to do this, I want to know that you want to." At Shamir's pointed look, she flushed again. "Not like that, though that's—good. Good to know. It's just that you're hard to read, sometimes. And I wouldn't—I wouldn't want to do something that was only uncomplicated. Not like that."

 _Knights_. It took Shamir a moment to parse that, while Catherine went more and more still. "Oh," she said when she finally figured it out. "Thunder Catherine, you're a _romantic_."

She'd meant to tease, but it came out too fond. Catherine ducked her head, but the next moment she was meeting her eyes, steady. "What of it?" she said, and—oh, that was a challenge, too. Shamir felt that like a blow, the breath punched from her lungs. Every time Catherine surprised her, she felt that.

Shamir wasn't given to fancy talk, and she wasn't going to start now. But she said, picking her words carefully, "If you want, this thing—it can be complicated," and saw Catherine's mouth go soft in a smile. Felt that softness somewhere under her own sternum. Dangerous, maybe, but Shamir knew how to handle danger. "So why don't you get in bed," she said, back on firmer ground, "and let me get at you under all that armor?"

Shamir had complained, before, about the work it took to unlace Catherine out of her plate, but it felt different when Shamir could brush her fingertips over bare skin and have Catherine shudder in response. She took her time, putting away pieces as they fell from Catherine's limbs, and when she unlaced the gambeson and slid the fabric off Catherine's shoulders, Catherine caught hold of her hands and rolled them over, heavy on top of her.

"You enjoyed that," she said, accusing. "I didn't expect you to be a tease."

"You enjoyed it, too," said Shamir, who'd seen the slick glimmer between Catherine's thighs. "Sometimes I like to reward myself."

"You _are_ impossible," Catherine said again, but then she bent down to take one of Shamir's nipples in her mouth, so maybe that didn't need a response, not in words. It was enough to let the groan slip out from between her teeth, to part her legs when Catherine slipped a hand between them. Again, points for enthusiasm—but then, she should have expected that from Catherine, who believed in doing something right if she did it at all.

And, lest Catherine feel too smug about how quickly she'd made Shamir shudder and shout, when Shamir bent her head down to lick over Catherine's slick folds, she had one hand over Catherine's mouth, fingers firm against the fine line of her jaw, so she could keep all of Catherine's lovely noises to herself.

In the morning, Shamir woke to Catherine's soft hair pressed against her shoulder, a warmth in her limbs, and it was—nice, she supposed, to think about waking up to the same thing years down the line. Maybe she should have been more afraid, but Catherine—Catherine was a rock. It wouldn't be Catherine who left.

"What are you thinking," Catherine said, raspy, and Shamir thought about lying, thought about small irrelevant truths.

"Maybe this is something I can stay for," she said instead. "A warm bed. A quiet night. You."

Catherine raised herself on an elbow so she could look into Shamir's eyes. "Don't make promises you can't keep," she said. She was disheveled from sleep, but her gaze was quite clear. "I know you."

And that was true, too. For a moment Shamir had no words at all, just the awareness that Catherine had offered this to her, a gift without expectations. "Okay," she finally said. For all she mocked the Knights of Seiros and their honor, she had her own. There was only one thing she could say in response and stay true. "Then—for as long as I can."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] honour in more ways than one](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24999319) by [growlery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/growlery/pseuds/growlery)




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